It is common practice in the design of passenger compartments for multiple-passenger automotive vehicles to provide for three rows of seats, the front row accommodating the vehicle driver and front seat passenger and the rear row accommodating rear passengers. An auxiliary seat may be located between the front row seats and the rear row seats for accommodating additional passengers. When the auxiliary seat is not in use, it is desirable to pivot the auxiliary seat to an upright position, thereby making more convenient passenger ingress and egress to and from the rear seat position through a side door in the passenger compartment.
It also is known design practice to form the auxiliary seat, sometimes referred to as a tumble seat assembly, with three independent sections, two of which can be pivoted independently of the others to an upright position when not in use. For example, in a 40-20-40 seating arrangement, the right-hand section auxiliary seat would occupy 40% of the axial width available for the auxiliary seat assembly. The left-hand section of the auxiliary seat assembly likewise would occupy 40% of the total width. The intermediate section of the auxiliary seat assembly would occupy the remaining 20% of the available width.
The two 40% seat sections of the auxiliary seat assembly may be pivotally mounted on bracket structure which typically would be anchored to the passenger compartment flooring.